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The valuables were stolen from a private hotel salon,[4] which was poorly guarded,[3] the guards having no weapons.[1] The jewels were present due to a display by Lev Leviev, the Israeli billionaire.[5]

The armed thief was described as having a baseball cap and scarf,[3] carrying a handgun.[6] The theft initiated a manhunt but no arrests were made.[6]Milan Poparic, a known member of the Pink Panthers, an organized crime gang, has been suggested as a potential suspect, having escaped a prison days before the heist.[1] Most believe the thief was unlikely to be acting on his own.[5][7]

The thief, carrying an automatic pistol, entered the salon through a french door, which might have been forced or left open,[6] and picked up a sack[4] containing 72 jewels, 34 of which have been described as exceptional,[4][8] in a suitcase.[1] The heist has been called the biggest heist ever in France,[8] and possibly the biggest heist of all time.[5] The theft was at the same hotel where Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 film To Catch a Thief was set.[9]

The robbery was the third in the Riviera over a short period, following the theft from the Cannes Film Festival of jewels worth $1.4 million, and the theft of a $1.9 million necklace.[7]

10 days after the heist[8] SW Associates, working for the insurers Lloyd's of London,[6] offered a $1.3 million (€1 million) reward to the first person to give information leading to recovery of the stolen items,[6] and released images of some of the stolen jewellery.[10]